Murder Stinks
by Qweb
Summary: A coed is found murdered in her dorm. A whodunit featuring Detectives Williams and Kelly.


_Author's Note: I've been wanting to do a Danny and Chin story, but somehow Kono begged to be included, too.  
><em>_I have never been to Hawaii, let alone the University of Hawaii. I don't know about its dorm system. This one is loosely based on my college dorm in the 49th state, not the 50th, and that was more than 30 years ago.  
><em>_This story is long enough that I'd prefer breaking it into two chapters, but it's a whodunit, so it's better left in one piece._

**Murder Stinks**

**Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett dropped into a chair in Detective Danny Williams' office where his partner was doing paperwork. Steve's hair was trimmed shorter than usual and the bridge of his nose was sunburned. **

"**You look all relaxed," Danny commented. "Blow up anything interesting?"**

**Steve grinned. "We blew up a sunken fishing boat that was blocking a shipping channel and then we sank a mothballed destroyer to form an artificial reef."**

"**Whatever floats your boat — or sinks it," Danny replied with an answering grin.**

"**What did you do this weekend?" **

"**We got called to a case. Murdered co-ed at the university. Personal friend of the governor," Danny said casually.**

**Steve sat up intently.**

"**Down, boy," Danny ordered. "It's done. We solved it. It wasn't really your thing, anyway. There weren't any car chases or gun battles."**

"**So tell me about it," Steve demanded.**

**Danny tapped a folder on his desk. "You can read the file," he suggested.**

**Steve smiled, leaned back and folded his hands behind his head. "But it's so much more entertaining when you tell me. And I've missed your chatter this weekend."**

"**Chatter!" Danny huffed, but he complied.**

* * *

><p>On a bright Sunday morning in Hawaii, Danny Williams was so bored that he was dusting his small apartment. He paid for 12 channels of sports on his satellite TV and there was nothing on. (Auto racing is a sport, really? It reminded Danny too much of work.) He'd had to get up at 6 a.m. to see the only NFL playoff game he was interested in. His team had lost before breakfast.<p>

It wasn't his weekend to have his daughter and all his friends had previous commitments, so he was dusting.

He didn't do it often. Usually his daughter Grace dusted — she liked taking care of her father — while Danny did the heavier work, vacuuming the carpet and cleaning the kitchen.

When Danny did it, he dusted the way his mother taught him (the way he'd taught Grace), lifting each item, wiping it clean and wiping under it before putting it back. The chore wasn't as tedious as it might have been, because he got to finger each knickknack made or chosen by his daughter. He smiled at the ceramic mug with the lopsided "Daddy" painted on it when Grace was in first grade and he shook his head at the golden pineapple trophy that said "World's Best Dad" that his partner had persuaded Grace to purchase for last Father's Day.

Danny had just picked up the father-daughter photo taken last Christmas, when his cell phone rang. He raised his eyebrows at seeing the word "Governor" on the screen.

"Williams," he answered, then raised his eyebrows farther. Not the governor's office but the governor himself. "Yes sir. No, McGarrett isn't available this weekend. This is his reserve weekend. He's teaching underwater demolition on the Big Island. Yes sir, give me the details." Danny scribbled some notes. "Robin Groening, college student at the University of Hawaii, found strangled in her dorm room."

"I'd leave it to the police, but there's been a multicar pileup on the Pali Highway. Multiple fatalities. They have their hands full and the girl's parents are important business owners in Alaska … and personal friends of mine," the governor confessed.

Been there before, Danny thought. But if it meant justice for someone's daughter, he was in. And he was happy to have a job to do on this boring Sunday morning.

"I'll get right on it, sir," he reassured the governor. Danny hung up, then speed dialed Chin Ho Kelly. The Jerseyan could have sworn he heard relief in Chin's voice when the Hawaiian answered, "Danny. What's up?"

Danny explained quickly, then apologized, "I'm sorry to interrupt your family gathering."

"No problem, brah. I'll see you there."

"We'll probably beat crime scene and the ME's office there. There's a big accident on the Pali. Multiple fatalities," Danny warned, then hung up.

Chin glanced across the room at his cousin. Kono Kalakaua looked tiny squashed between Aunt Hokuao and Cousin Aleka, both hefty women who were sobbing and wailing vocally.

"And the caterer says he can't get flowers to match the dishes and the tablecloths will clash with both," Aleka wailed. She was usually a nice girl, but her wedding plans were making her crazy, Chin thought.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I have to go," he said, though he wasn't really sorry at all. "There's been a murder." Kono looked at him with such pleading in his eyes, he changed his wording. "Kono and I are needed. Sorry."

Apologizing profusely, Kono squeezed out from the mountain of female flesh and almost ran to her red Cruze. "Thank you. Thank you. I thought I was going to go deaf!"

"Don't thank me. Thank Danny," Chin said with a grin, though he knew exactly what she meant. He rubbed his ear. Exactly what she meant.

* * *

><p>Driving into the campus, Kono saw a familiar silver Camaro parked next to an information board. Danny was trying to trace his path to the dormitory.<p>

Chin rolled down his window. "You lost, brah?"

"I've never been here before," the detective admitted.

"Hop in," Kono suggested. "There's not a lot of parking by the dorms anyway."

Danny locked his car and climbed in back. "So you've been here before?"

"We've taken a few classes," Chin said.

"And gone to a few football games," Kono added with a grin.

* * *

><p>The Five-0 officers walked into the dormitory and into an argument.<p>

"I've been cleaning that hallway since 8 a.m. and I didn't see anyone all morning!" a tall, wiry man in a janitor's uniform declared, waving his large, gnarled hands in a manner that reminded Kono of Danny in mid-rant. "If he was in her room, then he killed her!" He stabbed his forefinger at a burly young Hawaiian who cowered back, though he could probably break the janitor in half.

"I didn't kill her!" the student protested. "I'm the one who called 9-1-1. I couldn't have killed her. I brought her breakfast," he said plaintively, holding up a fast food paper bag.

"You could have come through the front door," an older man accused. "Why did you sneak into Robin's room through the window?"

This man was big and blond and looked like he belonged in Minnesota not Hawaii. He stood with his arm around a weeping woman, equally tall and as fit as an Olympic skier.

The Hawaiian rounded on the Viking. "You," he sneered. "All the girls talk about how you watch them and touch them. Robin called you Creepy Cody. What happened? Did you make a pass at her and strangle her when she laughed?"

Cody's wife clenched her fists. "Liar!" She looked like Brunhilda about to draw her sword.

These people made Danny feel like a dwarf and he didn't like it, so he took charge.

"What's going on here?" he sharply addressed the university police officer — another big guy — who was standing in the room.

"I'm sorry, detective," said the officer who had the name Kanahele on his shirt. "I know they shouldn't be talking to each other, but I'm all alone here. Simms is up guarding the body. And most of our force is at the football game where we already had a gang-related stabbing."

"Everybody's stretched thin these days," Chin said, obliquely warning Danny to take it easy.

"I did read them all their rights," Kanahele offered. The campus officers were sworn police officers, not mere security guards. "And I took notes."

"That was a good thought," Danny accepted. He scratched his chin. "Usually I'd prefer to see the scene before I talk to the suspects, but maybe we'd better start here, since everyone is in a chatty mood," he said to Chin, who nodded.

"Who do we have here?" Danny asked Kanahele.

"This is Mr. and Mrs. Jensen. They're the dormitory managers," the officer answered. "This is Keoki Hanauma. He found the victim and called 9-1-1." The officer's voice was dispassionate, not indicating whether he believed the student's story or not. "This is Tom Tufono. He was cleaning the third floor hall and restroom this morning. The Jensen's were cleaning the lobby and common room," the officer said, indicating the open area where they stood.

"It's winter break," Mrs. Jensen explained. "We can do a more thorough cleaning when the dorm is nearly empty. We've been here all morning and no one came in the front door."

Danny politely gestured her to silence.

"It's better if we take everyone's statement separately," he said, though that seemed a forlorn hope in this case. "Ma'am, I'd like you to stay here and talk to Officer Kanahele. Chin, take Mr. Jensen over there." Danny pointed at a far corner, then gestured Kono to another. "Kono, take our young friend. You, come with me," he finished, crooking a finger at the angry janitor.

Danny shook his head at himself as he led the janitor to their own corner. This was not ideal, but when witnesses/suspects were in a mood to talk, it was best to listen. As for the victim, she wasn't going anywhere, Danny thought morosely.

"Now, Mr. Tufono, please tell me what happened this morning."

The janitor was still agitated, still darting suspicious glances at the college student.

"I've been cleaning all morning, first the third floor bathroom. Then I started shampooing the hall carpet. I had gotten all the way to the back stairs. I didn't see anyone all morning until suddenly, paramedics came charging up the stairs, trampling my clean carpet. The door of room 301 opened and that boy stood there, gesturing the paramedics in. There shouldn't be any boys in this dorm. It's an all-girl dorm!" The man sounded almost more outraged about this infraction than about the murder.

"Then what happened?" Danny asked.

"The Jensens came up the stairs with the paramedics. Mrs. Jensen told me to go back downstairs and watch the lobby. So I went down the back stairs — because the carpet was still wet. No one came in or went out of the lobby while I was there. Then a few minutes later, the cops came in and the paramedics came out. They said the girl was dead and this was a police matter now."

"Did you see the victim?" Danny asked.

"No, not today. I mean, I know the girl who lives in 301, a pretty blonde. But I don't even know if that's the victim." Tufono sounded utterly flustered, thinking about the victim.

Danny changed the subject, to give the witness a chance to relax. He began writing down the man's address, how long he'd been at the job and other particulars.

— H50 —

"We were cleaning down here all morning," Hilda. Jensen told the officer firmly. "All of a sudden the paramedics ran in and said they had a report of an injured woman in Room 301. Poor Robin — Robin Groening — was one of the few students staying in the dorm during Winter Break, so we ran up with them and that boy let us in the room! He shouldn't have been in the room without checking in at the lobby."

Kanahele wanted to ask if she thought he'd killed the girl, but he conscientiously refrained from leading the witness.

Mrs. Jensen chewed her lip and hugged herself. "He's been a regular visitor and always seemed polite, but … why did he sneak into her room when he didn't need to? They could have had an argument." She rubbed her face with both hands. "It was horrible. Poor Robin lying there with her neck broken and Tom gawking at us from the far end of the hall with that carpet shampooer still running, scrubbing one spot over and over." She shuddered. "Stupid things you remember. I'll never forget the dumbfounded look on Tom's face when we all came galloping up the stairs like a herd of buffalo."

She looked at the cop beseechingly, "Please, what that boy said about my husband isn't true. He doesn't watch the girls."

* * *

><p>"Sure I watch the girls," Jensen told Chin Ho. "They're all so young and cute in their shorts and shorter skirts, but I'm not stalking them. They're cute like puppies. Pretty like scenery. Nice to look at, but I don't touch."<p>

As he spoke, he touched Chin's arm lightly for emphasis. It was the second time he had. Chin judged that he might touch the girls without thinking about it. Of course he might know exactly what he was doing. The detective filed that notion in the back of his mind and continued with the questioning.

"The paramedics said…" Jensen swallowed. "They said Robin's neck was broken and she probably died instantly. They didn't like to leave her, but they didn't want to disturb the crime scene and then they got a call about a knifing at the football game, so they left just as the officers arrived. I called the governor right away."

"Why call the governor?" Chin asked. He'd been wondering how Five-0 got there so fast, barely 90 minutes since the body was discovered.

"The governor was her emergency contact," was the man's surprising answer. "He was her father's roommate in college." Jensen's face crumpled. "Her poor parents. They're from Alaska. They were just here, visiting for Christmas. They've gone to Maui for a couple of days. What a thing to find when they come back."

— H50 —

"Tell me what happened," Kono coaxed. "Were you two dating?"

The young man sat on a battered but clean couch, his hands dangling slackly between his knees.

"Yes, Robin and I have been seeing each other about a month. We liked the same things, basketball, rock climbing, hiking."

"Is that why she stayed in the dorm instead of going home for Winter Break?" Kono asked.

Keoki looked at her as if she was crazy. "It's 50 below in Fairbanks where she's from. Her parents came here to visit. I met them while they were here but mostly Robin spent time with her parents for the last two weeks. I knew they were going to Maui for a week, so I called this morning. She said I woke her up, but I could make it up to her by buying breakfast. She said she'd leave the window open. So I stopped at McDonalds and got a couple of breakfast biscuits and I climbed up to the window…"

"Wait, you climbed up?"

"Yeah, it was kind of a joke, because we're both rock climbers. The building has rocks in the wall, like bricks but irregular?"

Kono understood but only because she'd seen the flagstone wall herself. "Go on," she encouraged.

"I climbed in and she was there on the floor. Her throat …" he swallowed. "… her head was … it was crooked. I think I knew she was dead, but I called 9-1-1." Tears filled his eyes. "But they couldn't do anything for her. They wouldn't even cover her up." He swallowed. "I'd just talked to her. It was only 20 minutes."

Kono thought he sounded sincere, but she'd been fooled before. He might be genuinely remorseful if he'd killed her in a sudden fit of anger. She looked around at their small pool of suspects. They all looked upset. It was hard to tell whether it was grief or anger or fear or simple shock.

* * *

><p>Leaving their suspects in their respective corners, the officers met and compared notes, then the Five-0 officers went to view the body.<p>

"First door on the right," Kanahele said, then used his radio to warn his partner that Five-0 was coming up.

Danny was glad to see someone he could look eye-to-eye, even if Officer Simms was a young lady hardly older than the co-ed corpse.

"I haven't seen anyone, detective," she said gamely. "Except …" Her eyes flicked toward the half open door where the toe of one small, bare foot was visible.

Danny started to pat her on the arm, then recalled the accusation against Jensen and restrained himself. "Go help your partner watch the suspects. We'll take over here. Don't let anyone up the stairs except the crime lab and the ME's office."

"Yes sir."

Danny saw the tracks of tears on the officer's cheeks. Then he did touch her arm sympathetically.

"I'm sorry," Simms said. "She was so young."

"Did anyone get in there? Anyone disturb the crime scene while you've been here?"

"No sir."

"Then you did fine," Danny reassured her.

"I should be tougher," she said, scrubbing her cheeks dry.

"You don't have to give up your humanity," Chin said.

"Thank you," Simms said to Chin and Danny. She went down the stairs.

The three officers looked at the motionless toes, light pink polish a little chipped on the nails.

"You don't have to give up your humanity, but sometimes you have to lock it in a box," Danny said hollowly. The father of a 9-year-old girl took a deep breath and used one knuckle to push open the door.

* * *

><p>The body was as pitiable as Danny had feared.<p>

She lay on her back on a crumpled throw rug, her bare toes two feet from the door and her blonde head toward the open window. The 19-year-old girl was small, just 5 feet tall, and slender, barely 100 pounds, the detective judged. She was still pretty even in death, even with her head bent at an unnatural angle.

The marks on her slender neck seemed obscene — the dark imprint of two big hands, windpipe crushed, vertebrae broken. Her eyes were half closed, her shoulder-length blonde hair spread like a halo around her head. Her lavender nightgown draped across her knees.

"It's not a robbery gone bad," Chin said, seeing a computer and iPod in plain view on the desk and a cell phone by the bed.

It doesn't look like a premeditated crime," Kono offered. "A crime of passion, an argument, a sudden lunge …"

"Wouldn't the janitor hear an argument?" Danny asked. "Maybe not with a rug shampooer running," he answered himself.

"It looks like the killer had big hands," Chin opined. "But everyone downstairs does, even Mrs. Jensen."

Danny crouched beside the victim to check body temperature. He extended a finger, then his fingers curled back into a fist, almost of their own volition, like a snail curling into its shell. Looking up, Danny met Chin's questioning look.

"It'll be a while before I can touch a body without thinking twice," he said, shamefaced.

Chin understood. Danny had been poisoned, almost killed, just by checking for a pulse on a corpse contaminated with sarin. Though this still-pretty girl looked nothing like the blue-faced, scorch-mouthed sarin corpse, Danny's friends understood his hesitation.

Kono crouched beside him and gave him a one-armed hug while she pressed a gloved knuckle against the victim's neck. "She's still warm," Kono reported. "We'll need Max to be sure, but I think she's been dead less than two hours."

"Fits with the boy's statement," Chin commented. He crouched beside the body as the other two moved away. "He said he called her about 10 after 9, which we can confirm from phone records."

Kono prowled the room looking for physical evidence. Danny moved to the open door and regarded the entrance pensively.

"You know, Danny, murder stinks," Chin said.

Kono looked over at the odd comment only to see Danny nodding thoughtfully. _Help! I missed something, _she thought, looking around almost frantically.

The detectives regarded the rookie tolerantly.

"What am I missing?" she asked.

"Use all your senses, rookie," Chin told his cousin kindly.

Kono didn't hear anything except the wind outside the open window. Remembering Chin's comment, she took a deep breath, inhaling the clean scent of lavender and baby powder, with maybe just a hint of McDonald's breakfast biscuits. Seemed typical for a college girl's dorm room. Oh! But nothing like a typical murder scene.

"It doesn't stink," she said,

The men nodded. Murder scenes usually reeked of blood, decay and the feces and urine released when a body relaxes in death.

"But what does it mean?" Kono asked, because it obviously meant something to her friends. They just smiled at her, giving her time to work it out for herself. She combed back her hair in frustration.

"Here's something that — being from Hawaii — you probably don't know, Chin." Leaning against the doorjamb, Danny beckoned his friends to the entrance, but put up his arm to prevent them from stepping into the hall. "Sometimes snow is a Jersey detective's best friend," the Jerseyan said, as he gestured at the carpet.

_Snow?_ Kono thought, but then she understood. The fluffed up, newly shampooed carpet was as good as a field of snow for showing footprints. The hall around the front stairs showed a multitude of prints, including their own, the paramedics and the university's police officers. But the hallway in the other direction was pristine, unmarked by footprints from close to Robin's door past the restroom, clear to the carpet shampooer standing beside the back stairs where the janitor had left it.

"So either the killer came up the front stairs — which Mr. and Mrs. Jensen say didn't happen — or he came in the window like Keoki," Kono said. She was disappointed because she had believed the young man. She continued analyzing, "The Jensens alibi each other, which doesn't mean a lot," she confessed. "But Tufono also said he didn't see anyone in the hall. Would he lie for his boss?"

"Mm," Danny said noncommittally, chewing his lip.

Chin's eyes blazed with sudden understanding. "That bastard!"

"Who?" Kono demanded.

"Kono, if your boyfriend called and woke you up and said he was coming over with breakfast, what would you do?" Danny asked.

"Well, I'd …" Kono blinked. "But she didn't, I mean, there weren't any …" She blinked again, then her eyes went wide. "That bastard!"

She hurried to the stairs. Grinning, the two men followed behind.

* * *

><p><strong>Danny paused in his story. <strong>

"**Well, what happened?" Steve demanded. "Whodunit?"**

"**You don't want a minute to figure it out yourself?" Danny shook his head in pretend dismay. "Ellery Queen would be so disappointed in you."**

"**Ellery who?"**

"**Ellery Queen. He was a mystery writer and a fictional sleuth. He always gave the reader a minute to solve the mystery."**

"**I didn't like mysteries," Steve protested. "I liked Westerns and war stories."**

"**Of course, you did. Shoot first and ask questions never."**

"**Just tell me what happened," Steve ordered with his Navy commander bark, leavened with a grin. **

"**Yes sir!" Danny snapped off a mocking salute using just the middle finger of his hand. He continued his story, "Focused like a heat seeking missile, Kono homed in on the janitor. 'Tom Tufono, you're under arrest for the murder of Robin Groening,' she announced.**

"**Tufono shoved Mrs. Jensen into Officer Kanahele and ran for the exit, seeing only slender Officer Simms in his way.**

"**That girl whipped out her baton and slammed him in the middle," Danny told Steve proudly. "He folded up like a notebook, then Kono jumped on his back and cuffed him, reading him his rights. Her teeth were clenched, but Tufono understood her just fine."**

"**How'd you know it was Tufono?"**

**Danny shook his head. "What's the first thing most people do when they get up in the morning? Murder stinks, Steve. Except this one didn't. There was no smell of feces. The girl had obviously been to the restroom, even though the janitor said he hadn't seen anyone all morning."**

**Steve thought, then nodded. "And then he erased any footprints using the rug shampooer."**

"**Exactly. Poor Robin was just too cute for her own good," Danny said pensively. "She probably didn't notice the janitor when she ran past in her nightgown going to and from the restroom. He followed her and tried to kiss her. She pushed him away and started to scream. He grabbed her by the neck to shut her up. He says he never meant to kill her. When he realized he had, he shut the door and went back to work, thinking she wouldn't be found for days. No wonder he looked shocked when everyone ran up the stairs and into her room. It's just a sad, sordid crime. And a young life lost."**

**Steve finally opened the file. He looked at the pictures of the murdered girl, a crime scene photo of the corpse and a smiling photo of the girl and her parents celebrating Christmas together just two weeks before.**

"**Murder stinks, Danny," Steve said sadly.**

"**Yes," Danny agreed. "Yes, it does."**


End file.
